. But in state after state, primary voters expressed their desire to see a different storyline, voting to return familiar faces to office.

For an electorate disgusted with the handling of the BP oil spill and anxious about a still-shaky economy, the incumbents-are-doomed story had become yet another element of politics as usual. The anti-anti-incumbent candidates rode this wave of mistrust to one victory after another.

“Anti-incumbent wave rolls on,” Politico had reported in its banner headline, as the polls were closing. But in the span of a few hours, between the casting of the votes and the counting of them, the voters had changed their minds. Rejection of rejection was the ultimate rejection.